First Raspberry Pi boards leave RS warehouses

RS and Allied have started shipping Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized computer board designed to seed a new generation of programmers. The shipments are being sent to the first group of customers from around the world, all of whom registered for a Raspberry Pi from RS and Allied.

Invitations to place an order on the new RS and Allied Raspberry Pi online store have been sent out to customers on a first-come, first-served basis in line with registrations of interest placed on the companies’ websites and to match the number of boards available from RS and Allied in the first production run. This process will be repeated once the next batch of boards becomes available. RS and Allied have implemented this procedure to ensure that all orders for Raspberry Pi are fulfilled with a confirmed delivery date. Due to the exceedingly high demand for the product, and limited quantities available from the manufacturer at this time, orders are currently restricted to one board per customer.

When ordering Raspberry Pi from the dedicated online store, customers can click through to the associated parts and accessories required for activation of the board. These include USB A-B cables, HDMI cables, power supplies and SD memory cards from a range of leading suppliers, all available to purchase from stock. By ordering these cables and other accessories from RS and Allied at the same time as the Raspberry Pi board, customers can make a saving on the delivery cost, as the same total shipping charge is applicable.

RS and Allied are currently developing a variety of tools and initiatives to support Raspberry Pi users and the companies’ DesignSpark electronics design community is seeing many people discussing ideas and thoughts on Raspberry Pi. Recent additions to the site include a series of Pi Perspectives, where leading UK academics and scientists share their views on Raspberry Pi, and information on a Raspberry Pi experimenter’s kit now being developed. Various tutorials covering everything from initial set-up to a guide to the different Linux flavours, including a Fedora Mix start-up guide, are also available.

The Raspberry Pi board was created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charity based in Cambridge, UK, and was conceived to encourage and enable children to learn and apply computer programming.